


Locked In.

by Sparklez112



Series: i close my eyes, i built these walls (the next step) [1]
Category: The Next Step
Genre: Amanda.... what is she hidding..., Emily really goes through it, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Orthorexia, Miss Kate is nice here! unlike in the actual show oops, Riley is an empathetic queen we stan, Some Swearing, basicially a slumber party lol, lock-in, some physical violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:48:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29224974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparklez112/pseuds/Sparklez112
Summary: Amanda wasn't one for communication, or for even showing much emotion for that matter. The only thing anyone could base their opinion of Amanda on was her actions.Maybe that was the problem.Nobody was paying attention to her actions.~in which emily and riley devise a plan to host a lock-in at the studio in order to expose amanda for the traitor that she is.turns out, the elite member's secrets run much deeper than she lets on...
Relationships: Emily & Amanda (The Next Step), Emily & Riley (The Next Step), Minor James/Riley (The Next Step)
Series: i close my eyes, i built these walls (the next step) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2145783
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Locked In.

**Author's Note:**

> tw// mentions of dieting + orthorexia, physical violence, assault of a minor. feel free to skip reading this if any of those subjects are too graphic or upsetting. take care of yourselves <3
> 
> hi everyone! i live for Amanda + Emily content and there is not nearly enough of it that exists, so I wanted to give my take on their complicated dynamic in Season 2. This oneshot takes place between S2E21 Hello Trouble and S2E22 Lost. i hope you enjoy <3

The first thing Emily noticed as she lazily flounced into A-Troupe rehearsal was her sister having an animated conversation with Kate and Phoebe in their office. 

Of course, it wasn’t a surprise to her.  
It was a part of the plan she’d developed with Riley to get Amanda exposed and kicked off of the team.

But even though she wasn’t surprised, she still had to pretend like she was. As far as the studio was concerned…

She was an uncommitted, rude, slacker who didn’t care an ounce about her sister or the team.

“ _You’re late_ , Emily.”

It was Giselle who’d called her out from the dance floor as she half-hazardously shoved her bag into her cubby.

_Time to act like a horrible person again._  
_Always my favourite part of the day…_

Emily spun on her heels, giving a dismissive shrug. “What’s it to you guys?”

“We’re a team, Emily,” Thalia butted in, “We need you here.”

The former dance captain had to give credit where credit was due. Giselle, Thalia and even West had all been on top of Emily’s repeated offences of being late and acting up.  
Even if being called out by them made her job harder, she at least appreciated how much they cared about the studio.

“Oh, please,” Emily put on her usual show, rolling her eyes. “I’m not even the only one missing. What’s Riley in the office for? Finally got called out on her awful dancing?”

Her heart ached with every word, but she knew Riley understood and wouldn’t hold it against her.  
It was for her cover.

Some team members shook their heads in disbelief, others tensing angrily.

“That’s your own sister!-“

“Let’s calm down.”  
Amanda cut into the argument, authoritative as ever.  
“Fighting isn’t going to get us ready for Nationals. Let’s rehearse, and we can talk about this later.”

_What a hero._  
Emily had to physically stop herself from rolling her eyes. Of course Amanda would have the chance to come off as the mature, responsible dance captain while Emily was driving her own reputation into the ground.  
There wasn’t one part of her that didn’t bitterly resent Amanda.

But she couldn’t let anyone know that.  
They were supposed to be best friends after all! Amanda was so _dedicated_ to try and help Emily through her recent bouts of bad behaviour. An upstanding dance captain, for sure.  
Emily wanted to vomit. 

Pushing all of her thoughts aside, she (begrudgingly) listened to Amanda as she caught her up on the section that she’d missed. It was the finals routine, and they were making pretty steady ground by the looks of it.

It alarmed Emily that Amanda was the one teaching the choreography. Apparently she’d gone off with Phoebe at some point to learn the whole thing and be able to relay it to the team, but her knowing _any_ routine of theirs freaked her out. Especially the finals routine of all things. 

What if she brought it back to Elite and they stole their choreography? God forbid they both ended up in the last round together…

It was kind of crazy how fast Amanda managed to learn it all, though. Emily could say (and has said, behind her back) a lot of things about Amanda, but she’s a good dancer.

Picking up regular choreography was hard enough for Emily, who considered herself more of a leader than a dancer. Learning everyone’s part and line placements would take her close to a month. 

The fact that Amanda could do it without batting an eyelash made Emily hate her _more._

By the time Amanda showed her what she’d missed, Riley scampered out of the office to join the practice. Emily avoided her gaze for obvious reasons, no matter how badly she wanted to know how things with Kate went. 

She’d have to wait until the end of practice to find out. 

They spent the bulk of their time on Rewind, switching to Unsinkable to make sure they had it polished and clean. Phoebe decided she wanted to give everyone a guided meditation session towards the end of practice to “balance their chakras”. It quite literally felt like an eternity of her chanting and doing strange movements, but the rehearsal finally drew to a close.

Kate joined her sister at the front of the room to address the dancers.  
“Good work today, everyone. Thank you to Amanda for keeping everyone organised: you’ve really shown yourself to be a great leader.”

Amanda pushed some hair out of her face, giving a shy cutesy smile that was definitely fake. Emily had to physically stop herself from rolling her eyes.

_Is everyone else just that convinced by her stupid smile? She’s not even that good of an actress!_

“I actually have a surprise for you all.”

Everyone paid a little closer attention, eager to find out the news.

“Things have been… tense, at the studio lately.” Kate wasn’t very subtle about letting her eyes trail over to Emily as she said the last part. “I’d like for us to spend some time together as a team to help set us on the right path for Nationals.”

Phoebe cut in, unable to contain her enthusiasm. “We’re going to have a lock-in!”

The team perked up. A few people gasped, some letting huge smiles appear on their features. West even full-blown did a flip to show his excitement.

While everyone else was celebrating, Emily gauged Amanda’s expression. She was also smiling, but with Giselle playfully nudging her, she didn’t have much of a chance to show her genuine reaction.  
Emily resorted to inspecting her subtle tells. She’d gotten much better at reading the Elite dancer’s body language over the past few weeks since she gave away about as much emotion as a solid brick wall.

Even then, brick walls probably have more personality than she does.

Amanda held herself tightly, her eyes slightly dulled signalling that this announcement wasn’t amusing in the slightest.  
If anything, she was giving more hints that she was unhappy than she usually did when she was acting.

_Amateur._

“Make sure you bring your sleeping bags and pyjamas tomorrow,” Kate reminded the team, “We’ll be spending the night. Both Phoebe and I will be staying to supervise and your parents can call us if they have any concerns.”

With that, everyone was dismissed.

Most people buzzed amongst themselves about the upcoming lock-in as they filed out of Studio A.

Not Amanda.

She kept her cool for the time being, waving to a few of her teammates as she made her way over to her own cubby. Grabbing her bag, she speed-walked to leave as if she had tunnel-vision. 

And Emily was forced to follow. 

Anger flared up in her chest as she chased after the brunette. It felt degrading to be shadowing her like an obedient dog, falling in line behind her like a butler ready to serve her every whim.

_Suck it up, Emily._  
_If everything goes according to plan, this will all be over by tomorrow._

It was the only thing keeping Emily sane at this point. 

Amanda’s speed-walk had quickened to a jog, and that combined with her long legs made Emily and her short height struggle to keep up. She finally managed to grab her hand a few steps down the sidewalk right outside of the studio.

“Amanda!”

The dance captain shook her hand away and continued to barrel forward. “I don’t have time to talk to you.”

“Well do you have time to put on a sweater at least?”

It was still late February, a light layer of frost covering the ground and cold air jetting at them from every direction. Emily was at least wearing her blue sweater, but Amanda was still in her black dance bodysuit comically paired with large white winter boots. 

_Does she even realize how ridiculous she looks right now?_

Amanda didn’t stop, but she slowed her pace enough to engage in conversation. “What do you even want?’

For as icy as it was outside, Amanda’s harsh tone was colder.

Emily had to play her cards right here: one wrong slip of the tongue could risk her entire alliance with Amanda. She’d already broken up with her boyfriend to get this far, no way was she ruining things now.

“You know I had nothing to do with this, right?”

Amanda huffed. “You expect me to believe that when this only happened after your sister talked with Miss Kate and Phoebe? You should’ve stopped her.”

“I wasn’t even there when she did that, I didn’t know she was planning this!” Emily shouted, trying to make her reaction seem believable. “As far as I’m concerned, we stopped being sisters the second she went behind my back and overthrew me as dance captain. She won’t let it go though: I know she’s just doing this to make me angry. To rub it in that everyone on the team hates my guts and will _always_ hate my guts.”

The brunette looked Emily up and down, as if to try and determine if she was lying or not.

“You don’t seem very happy about this either, but I can assure you that I’m dreading this much more than you are.” She closed, hoping it would be enough to sway Amanda.

_“I doubt that.”_  
Amanda didn’t explain further, only continued to stomp down the sidewalk without even sparing Emily a glance.

_Is she questioning my cover?_  
_No, that can’t be what she means. She’s probably just grumpy because she’s cold._

“It’s not like the night will be totally wasted: sleepovers are good for starting drama, you know?”

It was a bit of a risky thing to suggest, especially since Amanda didn’t entirely trust her yet, but Amanda stirring the pot meant more opportunities to expose her as the traitor she really was.

Unfortunately, drama seemed to be the last thing on Amanda’s mind.

“I’m going to miss practice tomorrow…I’m gonna have to tell Lucien…I guess he’ll decide how I’ll be handling this…”  
She started listing things in a frazzled frenzy as if Emily wasn’t even there. Honestly, it was a little bit strange to see her so shaken up since she was usually so calm and collected.

To the point that Emily constantly wondered if she was a robot.

It didn’t last though. Amanda took a deep breath, returning to the sharp glare she so loved to give Emily whenever the chance presented itself.

Emily expected her to try and pry for information, or to at least give some kind of back-handed comment about how Emily had better not screw this up for them.

Instead, Amanda rushed off, leaving Emily in the middle of the sidewalk. In retrospect, maybe that was the response Emily should’ve expected: is there anything more rude than ditching the person you’re with without letting them know you’re leaving?

She watched as the girl struggled with her backpack, pulling out her sweater as she approached a city bus. Scanning her surroundings to make sure it was safe, Amanda slipped her Elite sweater over her exposed arms. She piled onto the vehicle just as the doors closed, Emily watching as the vehicle went further and further down the street until it vanished from her sight completely. 

Emily could’ve dwelled on how weird that whole interaction was, but she was starting to freeze in this weather. All she wanted to do at that point was get home and talk to her sister. 

She finally got the chance. Spotting Riley sitting on the couch as she walked in the door, she immediately asked:  
“What happened with Kate and Phoebe?”

Riley’s gentle brown eyes fell on Emily’s blue ones. “It was like you said, they thought it was a great idea. They seem worried about you, Em: especially Miss Kate. She knows you’re not usually like this.”

It was nice to know there was at least someone at the studio who didn’t see her as an unforgivable monster.

“How about Amanda?” Riley asked, “Did you get to talk to her?”

Emily gave an ironic laugh. _“Barely.”_

She relayed the entire bizarre experience to her sister, who sat and quietly nodded along as she took in the information.

“I mean, who runs out into the winter snow wearing a leotard? She’s really lost it Riley, I’m telling you.”

Riley put her head in her hands thoughtfully. “It does seem kind of strange, I guess... but she was going to rehearsal at Elite, right? Maybe she knew she wouldn’t have enough time to get changed _and_ catch her bus in time, and figured it wasn’t worth it if she was just going to dance again anyways.”

“But why not put on her sweater then? The Elite logo isn’t even that big: she could’ve covered it with her hand and nobody would know the difference.”

“I don’t know… if her cover was important enough to her, maybe she really did think that it was better to freeze than to risk it.” Riley reasoned. 

Emily wasn’t sure why Riley felt the need to justify Amanda’s actions, or why she was thinking about it so deeply at all.  
For all Emily knew, Amanda was just doing it to annoy her because that seemed to be the reason she did most things. 

“My biggest worry is that she doesn’t show up at all,” Emily changed the subject, “She might pretend to be sick to avoid the lock-in, especially since she apparently has practice at Elite tomorrow. Lucien might tell her to skip rehearsal at The Next Step, and she’ll listen to what he says.”

_She’s his little puppet, after all._

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Riley tried to reassure her, “Amanda needs to keep her cover and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. Worst comes to worst, we’re just going to have to find a way to get everyone over to the Elite studio and catch her rehearsing with them.”

The older girl sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

Riley’s eyes trailed around the room and she pressed her lips together a few times. After a bit of tense silence, she finally spoke up again.  
“Are you sure you’re going to be able to get through this? It’s going to be a lot of pressure to try and expose Amanda while also keeping your own cover until we can get proof.”

Nervously playing with her fingers, she added, “This whole thing has already been so hard on you… I don’t want you getting hurt even more.”

Emily took both of her sister’s hands in her own to stop her fidgeting. “It’s sweet of you to worry, Riley, and I’ll admit it’s not going to be easy. But it’ll all be worth it to get rid of Amanda.”

Riley gained a small smile at the comforting action, but the worry lines on her forehead didn’t fade. 

“... I don’t want to ask this of you…” It was Emily’s turn to avert her eyes, “But there’s a chance I might need your help. Since you’re not allied with her, you can do things without coming off as suspicious.”

In reply, Riley gave a small nod. “Of course. I want to help in any way I can.”

Giving her sister’s hands one last reassuring squeeze, the two separated to get one night of rest before the stressful day ahead of them.  
If nothing else, Emily was glad to have Riley in her corner. Without her encouragement, she might’ve lost hope long before they ever got to the lock-in plan. 

But it was happening.  
Neither of them had any idea what was in store for them the next day. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Emily let herself be on time, for the sake of being able to drive Riley to and from the studio and also because she needed to see if Amanda would actually show up. 

She sat on the bench in front of the cubbies, hunched over to give the impression she’d rather be anywhere else. 

Riley was at the other side of the studio talking with Eldon and Chloe. James was trying to worm himself into their conversation by the looks of it, but Riley didn’t seem to want to bother with him at the moment.

_What number is he on now, number 7?_  
_I guess he isn’t finished yet if Riley doesn’t want to talk._

Her time spent cleaning the mirrors with James was a positive for their relationship, even if she was still resentful of him cheating on her sister at all.  
But if Riley could forgive him after getting him to do a ridiculously long list of things, then Emily could at least admire his dedication. 

Speaking of messy relationships...

Emily’s eyes trailed over to where Hunter was talking with Giselle and Thalia. She couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but it looked like he was making both of them laugh. 

She wondered if she’d get a chance to talk to him tonight. Maybe once Amanda fell asleep or something... 

....but that was assuming she’d show up at all. 

The former dance captain scuffed her feet against the floor, becoming genuinely concerned Amanda was going to ditch. She’d much rather avoid the outcome of having to convince Kate to let them all leave and take an educational road trip over to Elite Dance Academy, thank you very much. 

Sure enough, a few minutes later Amanda finally graced the team with her presence. She looked as immaculate as she always did, her high ponytail didn’t have a single strand out of place and her posture gave off an air of confidence.

This would probably be the only time in her life that Emily was _happy_ to see Amanda.

The dance captain lingered at her cubby for a while. By sheer virtue of following her everywhere, Emily knew this was strange behaviour: she would usually go stretch for a while before practice started.

_Maybe she really is dreading this..._

But what could possibly be so awful about a sleepover? Everyone at the studio liked Amanda (however misguided that was), so Emily really didn’t understand why she was so put off by the whole thing.

It didn’t really matter though.  
All that mattered today was exposing Amanda for the traitor she really was.

Soon after, their regular rehearsal started. Amanda led the stretches, not letting anyone else see that anything was amiss.  
It was more of the same from yesterday: the bulk of their time went into Rewind, a sliver into Unsinkable. Luckily, Phoebe wasn’t concerned about their chakras today so they decided to run routines for the other rounds. 

Amanda practiced her small group and her solo, putting her full effort into both dances.

_Ironic, since she won’t be doing either of them._

If Amanda was a bad dancer, exposing her would be ten times easier. But she had talent, and people were so blinded by that that they missed all of the cues screaming at them to not trust her.

After her own routines, she supportively watched Eldon’s solo and Giselle and Thalia’s duet. She even gave them corrections that were actually helpful. 

Emily scoffed. Amanda was anything but helpful, and this was only her attempt to keep her cover as solid as possible. Emily couldn’t wait to see her facade come crumbling down right in front of the whole team and have them realize how awful of a person she really was. 

That marked the end of the practice, but it was only the beginning of the night. 

Kate and Phoebe stepped out of the office and joined the team on the dance floor.  
“The routines are coming along so well!” Phoebe piped up sweetly.  
“Now that you’ve worked hard, who’s ready for the lock-in?”

A-Troupe cheered in response. Most of A-Troupe, anyways. 

Emily was forced to act apathetic so that Amanda wouldn’t get suspicious. She was cheering on the inside, though, at the prospect of being done with Amanda and her annoying games.

Amanda didn’t cheer either, just grinned that phony smile that nobody else could tell was fake.

“I’ll give you some time to set your sleeping bags up. Girls, you’ll be spending the night here, and boys, you’ll be in the music room.”

The two adults left the room together. The dancers went over to grab their sleeping bags and set them up as per their request. 

Most of the girls chatted away, rolling their sleeping bags out in the back corner of Studio A. Emily made a big show of dragging her feet, lugging her sleeping bag to a separate part of the room than everyone else.

She let her eyes trail over to Amanda, who was currently unravelling her own sleeping bag next to Thalia’s. 

Emily was reminded that she wasn’t alone in this plan when Riley swooped in, claiming the spot next to Amanda as her own. A smile set on the blonde’s face.

_Good thinking, Riley._  
_Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer._

The team’s eyes lit up as Phoebe and Kate returned, bags upon bags of snacks in their arms. They went over to help them set up a table of food. Once the boys got back from the music room, they lent a hand as well.

Soon enough, Studio A was transformed into a full-blown party space.  
Music blared from the speakers, and the whole team was in good spirits, ready to spend the night having fun together. The adults went into the office to supervise, encouraging the teens to enjoy each other’s company. 

Emily took a seat at the side of the room, deciding to observe for the time being.  
She had to make it look like she didn’t want to be here. Plus, it would buy her some time to come up with a concrete plan to expose Amanda.

She watched as James and West had a trick-off, Chloe demanding they get further away from the snack table while laughing. Riley was trying her best to blend in with the crowd, watching the boys’ competition and picking at the muffin on her plate.

Amanda was watching too, but she inched herself further and further away from the group until she left completely, rounding the corner and leaving Emily’s line of sight.

_What is she up to?_

For all she knew, Amanda had just gone to the bathroom. Emily didn’t want to take unnecessary risks by spying on her at pointless times when she knew she’d have to take much bigger risks later.

But when Hunter followed after where Amanda had walked with two plates of food in his hands, Emily had to know what was going on. 

Shuffling over to the next set of seats, she peered around the corner as stealthily as possible.

Amanda was facing her cubby, angled away from Emily. Even though Hunter was right there next to her, her eyes were glued to her phone. This seemed especially rude since Hunter was talking to her.

Well, Emily assumed he was. She could see his mouth moving but couldn’t hear him over the loud music. 

Emily furrowed her eyebrows. It aggravated her that Amanda was being so standoff-ish towards Hunter while forcing Emily into a position where she couldn’t even talk to him. She’d give an arm and a leg to be able to have an open conversation with Hunter again, but she knew she couldn’t if she wanted to keep Amanda’s trust.

It was like she was flaunting that fact in Emily’s face.

Whatever exchange the two were having was broken apart by Kate stepping out of her office.  
“Amanda, I’d like you to stay off of your phone tonight. This time is for you to spend bonding with your teammates. Social media can wait.”

Amanda visibly paled at Kate’s words, shoving her phone back into her cubby. She mouthed the words sorry to the adult who returned to the office after giving a satisfied nod. 

Hunter offered the second plate of food to the dance captain, who was finally paying enough attention to him to accept it. From reading their lips, Emily doubted the taller girl even said _thank you._

He returned to the party, leaving Amanda alone. She left a few seconds later, but not before giving a dejected look at where her phone was placed.

_What the heck was that about?!?_

Call Emily nosy for wanting to know what her ex-boyfriend wanted with her mortal enemy, otherwise known as the person who forced their relationship to end. 

She was going to figure it out, one way or another.

Amanda was still being distant. She sat against the wall, playing with the popcorn on her plate by pushing the kernels around with her finger.  
She pressed on her usual forced smile when Giselle came over to talk, but her eyes kept on trailing back to where her phone was.

Emily busied herself while they conversed by fixing her own plate of food.  
You know, since her (ex) boyfriend had decided to give Amanda a curated assortment of snacks but not her.

When Giselle left, Emily made her way over to the dance captain. 

Amanda didn’t even look up. She seemed much more interested in pushing around the food in front of her than in the party.

“You do know popcorn is edible, right? You can do more than just play with it.”  
Emily couldn’t help but be a little snarky after catching her talking to her ex-boyfriend. 

The Elite member blinked, unimpressed. Her face was devoid of emotion.

“You mean like this?”

And Emily swears to god, Amanda picked up a piece of popcorn and flicked it right at her face.  
It bounced off of her cheek before skidding away across the dance floor.

Emily was momentarily stunned and took a second to collect herself.  
“ _Gee_ ,” She deadpanned, “I really hope that made you feel better.”

Amanda had gained a small smirk. Still, she sighed. “No, it really didn’t.”

At this point, Emily was struggling to tell if Amanda was trying to be playful or just straight up annoying. She was biased towards the latter option since she was already angry as all hell at her.

“What were you talking to Hunter about?” Emily grilled her for information. 

The taller girl shrugged. “I don’t really know what he wanted. I wasn’t listening to him, to be honest.”

_How considerate, miss dance captain._

Of course, Amanda could nod and smile and trick everyone into thinking she cared when half of the time she wasn’t even listening to them.  
Her doing it to _Hunter_ of all people was like the cherry on top of a ‘Screw you, Emily’ sundae. 

“Why not?” Emily continued her questioning, “Was it because of what was on your phone?”

Amanda lost the playful glint in her eyes. They sharpened into an intense glare. “It doesn’t matter.”

Not expecting her to get so angry at the question, Emily threw her hands up. “Okay, jeez. Sorry.” 

Their conversation was interrupted by Thalia and Riley joining them. Amanda pressed on her fake smile, continuing her fake I’m-the-sweetest-person-ever act.  
Luckily, Emily’s own act wasn’t as intensive. She let Amanda carry the conversation, pretending to be uninterested in both Thalia and her sister’s words.

Internally, the gears were spinning in her head.

_Clearly there’s something on her phone based on her reaction. But she’s not stupid: there’s no way her phone doesn’t have a password on it._

_Maybe I can guess it somehow? That’ll help me expose her…_

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a start, at least.

She let herself take this time of not paying attention to anyone to eat some of the food on her plate. Amanda had the same idea, finally nibbling on a few pieces of popcorn instead of pelting people with it. 

“Hey guys, do you want to join us for some truth or dare?”

It was Eldon who’d extended the offer. He gestured behind him, where the rest of the team was sitting in a circle on the floor.

“Sounds like fun!’ Thalia piped up, “Are you guys coming?”

Riley gave a nod in confirmation. Amanda agreed as well, and Emily was probably the only one who took notice of her slight hesitation. 

“Please, Em.”

Riley looked pleadingly at her sister. Emily got the hint, thankful for the opportunity to strengthen her cover in front of Amanda.

“Sure Riley, I’ll play along!” The blonde’s voiced oozed sarcastic sweetness.  
“If you pick truth, maybe I can ask you why you insist on being such an embarrassment all of the time.” She spat the last part with venom.

It took all of Emily’s will not to pull her sister into a hug as an apology, especially when she saw her big brown eyes fill with pain. She had to remind herself that Riley knew she was only acting.

_Once this is all over, I’ll take her out for breakfast to apologize._

“Don’t listen to her, Riley,” Thalia glared at Emily, pulling her sister and Amanda away from her. All three of them sat on the far side of the room, leaving Emily to take the last spot at the circle between West and Giselle. 

The game of truth or dare began.

It started off pretty tame. Eldon was dared to let Giselle do whatever he wanted with his hair, and he ended up with two tiny blonde pigtails sticking out from the top of his head.  
Eldon dared James to re-create one of Riley’s routines, and he did a very hilarious rendition of the pointe dance she auditioned for female soloist with. Everyone was in stitches by the end.

Chloe was the first to pick truth, and James asked her what her most embarrassing moment was.  
“Definitely when Michelle found me on the bus in my uniform that day… I must’ve looked crazy, trying to hide my face in my book so that she wouldn’t see me.”

Emily’s lips upturned slightly as she pictured the moment. It was funny to think just how far Chloe had come since then.

Then she remembered she was supposed to be acting rude so she eavened out her expression.

“Amanda… truth or dare?”

The girl in question took a second to think, pulling her ponytail tighter as she came to her decision.  
“Truth.” She decided.

Emily had to stop herself from snorting.  
Every single word that’d ever come out of the Elite member’s mouth was a bold-faced _lie_. She wasn’t going to start telling the truth now.

"Do you... ever miss Elite?"

Riley’s eyes darted over to her sister, who’s own composure slipped a little bit at the unexpected question. 

Not that Emily was complaining. If Chloe wanted to unknowingly cast the first stone, she was welcome to do so. The blonde was thankful she didn’t have to do it herself and risk her cover.

Amanda pressed her lips together, her eyes shutting for a few seconds as she thought of her reply. “It’s different, I guess…” she started slowly, “I joined Elite when I was young, and this is my first time being away. I’ve always been close with my teammates there and it feels strange not being with them.”

_Except, you are still with them. In fact, you should be at rehearsal with them right now._  
_Liar._

Oh how Emily wished she could lay it all out on the table, but nobody would ever believe her.

Besides, Amanda seemed to have stepped up her acting game on this question. She appeared genuinely distraught, mulling over her words like she was actually conflicted.

_Of course she chooses the day we plan to expose her as the day she wants to be a better actress._

“But you guys have been really welcoming. It’s nice here.”  
She ended her delivery with a smile that didn’t look entirely fake, for once.  
Even though she was saying the most fake thing, since she obviously didn’t like it enough here to keep from trying to destroy the studio.

The game continued for a few more rounds. Emily had sort of checked out, trying to both act like she hated everything while also trying to think of what Amanda’s phone password could possibly be.

_Her birthday is the most obvious answer, but would she really make it that simple?_

_What was her locker number at Elite again? Seventeen? Or was that Tess’ locker…._

Luckily for Emily, her mean attitude seemed to keep people from asking her any questions. She would’ve loved to participate, but she wasn’t allowed to, not with Amanda-the-hawk breathing down her neck.  
She didn’t want to be a buzzkill in front of everyone anyways, not when they were having so much fun watching Thalia try and burp the entire alphabet or telling West to eat a weird combination of a bunch of the snacks all crushed together. 

Her ears perked up when West asked the next person.

“Hunter, do you swear to tell the truth? Or can you bear to do a dare?”

West was already quirky enough as is, but sleepovers really brought out the bizarre side of him.  
Hunter was confused by West’s words, but shrugged nonetheless. “I guess dare, bro.”

“Okayyy…” He looked around the room with a smirk on his face. Whatever he was about to propose, it was going to be big. It was West, after all.

“I dare you to cuddle with the person you’re most attracted to in this room.”

Chloe let out a gasp at the intense dare, James laughing and nudging Hunter in the shoulder from beside him. 

Emily’s heart stopped as Hunter stood up, running a hand through his messy brown hair. She couldn’t help but let her features soften as she gazed up at him.  
She missed him so much.  
She hoped that somehow, he could tell that she hadn’t wanted to end things, that it was out of her control…

He walked to the outside of the circle they were all sitting in. Emily thought she was going to pass out from the suspense.

_Surely… he hasn’t gotten over me that fast?_

Hunter crouched down behind his chosen girl, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his head into her back.

That girl wasn’t Emily.  
It was Amanda.

Emily wanted to scream, but her throat went dry.  
She wanted to go over and flip the table full of food, but she was frozen in place, forced to watch Hunter confess his attraction to the very girl who’d ruined her relationship with him.

Who’d ruined her entire life.

Her heart started pounding furiously against her ribcage. Tears stung in her eyes as the rest of the team started letting out mocking “ooohs” at the display. 

She could’ve killed Amanda right there, as Hunter gently caressed her with his muscular arms.  
“What can I say,” Hunter lifted his head up to mutter to the group, “I like a woman in charge.”

A few tears escaped Emily’s eyes, dripping down onto her cheeks. Nobody saw her crying though: they were all too focused on the _new couple_.  
The tears leaving her eyes did clear her vision, though. It finally let her see how stiff Amanda was in Hunter’s arms, her whole body tense and her jaw tightly clenched.

“I’m flattered,” Amanda said through gritted teeth, sounding like she was the exact opposite of flattered. “But I already told you, Hunter: I don’t like you like that.”

_I already told you?!?_

Emily was completely lost. It felt like she was phasing in and out of consciousness, her emotions clouding her ability to be present in the moment.

“You’ve got no game, dude.” James laughed, shaking his head at his friend.

“Oh c’mon man! Cut me some slack!”

Hunter’s sudden banter with James distracted him from Amanda, causing him to pull away from her. Amanda didn’t untense right away, but did move as far to the right as she could to put some distance between him.

Riley even caught onto this, making room for Amanda by shifting backwards.

_What the heck is going on?!?_

Emily was overwhelmed. She knew she couldn’t stay here, though: tears were still running down her face, and she wasn’t supposed to let anyone empathize with her.

_Is this another one of Amanda’s loyalty tests? She wants to see if I break and try to get back with Hunter?_  
_If it is, she’s truly more twisted than I ever imagined._

The blonde got up and stormed out of Studio A, heading to the bathroom. Once inside, she gripped the sink as if it was the only thing keeping her standing upright (which, it probably was). She took a few minutes to get a handle on her breathing before splashing cold water on her face.

She had to work up the confidence to look at her reflexion in the mirror.  
Her cheeks were still crimson and her eyes were still red-rimmed, but she forced her expression to harden.

_Hunter wouldn’t do this to me: this is Amanda’s doing._  
_She’s going to pay._

With newfound determination, she returned to the party.

She felt Riley’s worried eyes on her as she walked in, but she couldn’t let herself be distracted right now.  
Emily had a job to get done. 

It looked like they were all done with their truth and dare game: the circle had broken apart, everyone separating into small groups. She scanned the room a few times, unable to find Amanda in the crowd.

She finally spotted her sitting on top of her own sleeping bag… reading a book?  
No, it wasn’t a book. Emily had seen Amanda with it before in Culture Shock a few times, but she would always tuck it away as soon as Emily started approaching.

It was a journal. If the pencil between her fingers was any indication, she was writing in it right now. This time, she was so caught up in her writing that she didn’t even notice Emily barreling towards her. 

“What the hell was that about?!”

Amanda jumped, startled. She instantly slammed her book shut, tucking it inside her sleeping bag to hide it.  
Her surprised expression vanished when she locked gazes with Emily. She actually looked… sympathetic?

“What did you even see in him?”  
Her voice was much softer than it’s usual harsh bite.

Before Emily could go off on her, Amanda kept explaining. “He got into that stupid dance battle over Michelle… like she was some sort of object. That was more than enough to put me off of him, but when he started flirting with me while he was still seeing you I knew he was bad news.”

Emily opened her mouth to defend Hunter. Amanda must’ve misinterpreted him: Hunter would _never_ think about cheating on her, not after Eldon and Michelle had hurt her so bad by doing it….

But Emily couldn’t explain what she’d seen that night.  
Hunter giving Amanda a plate of food for no reason, Hunter wrapping his arms around her and saying that she was his type….

Her shoulders slumped as she desperately tried to keep any more tears from forming.

“You’re too good for him, Emily.”

Amanda’s crisp brown eyes bore directly into Emily. Except, for once, they didn’t seem hostile.  
They were unwaveringly determined, as if she wanted Emily to know that she was speaking with as much conviction as possible. 

“Why-” Emily paused, trying to swallow the lump that’d formed in her throat, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The Elite member arched an eyebrow. “Would you have believed me if I told you?”

Emily faltered.  
_No. Probably not._

“Either way, I knew you still liked him. It was a way for you to prove your loyalty to me while also ending that awful excuse of a relationship.”

Of course, right when Emily was starting to feel like maybe Amanda was being reasonable for once, she had to go and say something like that.  
What kind of awful person is flirted with by another person’s boyfriend and then thinks _“Perfect, now I can use this to my advantage!”_

Did Amanda not understand how many nights Emily spent crying after breaking up with Hunter?  
Riley was the only person giving her a reason to get out of bed those first few mornings. 

“... I’m sorry you found out like this.” Amanda mumbled, suddenly very interested in the wooden floor. 

_Does she…. feel guilty?_

The guilt was deserved. Amanda should’ve been honest right off of the bat.

Still, Emily felt the need and try to be nice for the sake of her cover.  
“It’s not like you made me break up with him so that you guys could be together.” Is what she ended up telling her, but she did a pretty poor job at hiding the poison in her tone. 

“Yeah, _no thanks_.” Amanda grimaced, gaining some of her confidence back. “You and your sister both have questionable taste in guys.”

_Kind of sad that we were both cheated on, I guess…_

In the corner of the room, it seems Riley had decided to let the list go for a little while. The big smile Emily spotted on her sister’s face as she goofed off with James was bittersweet.

At least _her_ boyfriend was making an active effort to rekindle things. Meanwhile, Hunter was completely fine not even telling Emily he was openly flirting with Amanda while they were in a relationship.

“Wait,” Realization struck the blonde, “Didn’t you also date James?”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Please. Don’t remind me.”

Emily shook her head, letting a sad smile etch her features.

Out of everything Emily thought this conversation would lead to, this not at all what she pictured. She truly thought that this was some second loyalty test set up by Amanda to see if she still had feelings for Hunter or if she would call her out on making them break up.

It hurt that Hunter would do that to her. Emily didn’t want to admit it, at first.  
But the signs were all there, clear as day. His dance battle for Michelle, the way Amanda never wanted to engage with him, even at practice…

It was time to move on from him.

Amanda’s sleeping bag came open a bit, her journal peeking out the smallest amount.  
This reminded Emily of the fact that she still had a job to do that was different from maybe-possibly-murdering-her:

Exposing her.

Even with the sort of heart-to-heart they just had, it didn’t change the fact that she was still trying to ruin the team’s shot at Nationals. Emily wouldn’t let that happen, not over her dead body.

“What’s that?” Emuly asked, gesturing towards the object.

“It doesn’t matter,” Amanda spoke quickly, rushing to cover the journal again.

“You already used that line with your phone.” Emily pushed further, “I’m on your side: you can tell me things, you know.”

Even with Emily’s attempts to convince her, Amanda didn’t seem willing to explain.  
"It’s nothing important,” She dismissed with a wave of her hand, “You ask too many questions.”

“Why won’t you just tell me if it isn’t that big of a deal?”

Amanda crossed her arms over her chest, getting up in Emily’s face. “Maybe it’s because some people don’t like to mix separate parts of their lives, imagine that!” Amanda let her eyes wander over to Riley, before adding a harsh dig:

“But keep doing things your way, since it’s clearly working out so well for you.”

_Talking to Amanda today is giving me more whiplash than if I had gotten into a car crash._

Emily would’ve sniped back about it was all Amanda’s fault that everyone hated her, but that would’ve been a death wish. As satisfying as it would’ve been to say _“My team has standards: unlike yours, who latches onto the first person who agrees to do their dirty work for them”_ , Emily had to wait until after exposing her to deliver that insult. 

Amanda made it perfectly clear that it was the end of the discussion. Emily’s eyes lingered on the book, but she decided to walk away before her ally got suspicious at her looking at it.

It was still annoying as ever how much Amanda kept to herself.  
Emily had a new lead to follow, though. 

_Books are much easier to open than phones are._

Whatever she was writing, she didn’t want anyone else to figure out what it was. It sort of amused Emily that Amanda wrote in diary: she really didn’t seem like the type to have one at all.

All she had to do was find an entry that mentioned Elite, show it to the team, and everything would be done.  
No more pretending to be an awful person, no more tearing herself down for the sake of someone who was betraying her closest friends.  
Her family. 

Speaking of which….

“Emily? Have you seen my pyjamas?”

Riley balanced slightly on her feet while asking the question. Emily caught her sneaking a glance at Amanda, but she only did for a split second.

Emily took that as her cue to go full throttle on her acting. 

“You can’t find them yourself?!” Emily dramatically huffed. “Are you really that stupid?”

“Em..” Riley tried again, grabbing her sister’s arm. “I don’t want to start anything. Please just help me find them.”

Riley gave the faintest of nods, one that signalled to Emily that she wanted to talk.  
Honestly, some time alone with Riley sounded really nice, especially after the Hunter fiasco. 

“ _Fine_ ,” Emily drawled, shaking off her sister’s grip and starting towards the door. “I guess I have to do everything for you. As usual.”

A few of her teammates gave Emily pointed looks as she left. She wasn’t happy that she had to keep debasing herself in front of them by openly insulting her sister, but at least their looks told her that Amanda had probably heard, too.

Emily couldn’t let her persona crumble. Not when she was this close to cracking the code.

The two stayed in character all the way to the changerooms.  
Emily let out a deep breath when she knew they were both alone. 

“Hey, are you alright?” Riley asked, casting a worried look at her sister.

The older girl didn’t answer right away: she just threw her arms around her sister’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug that she desperately needed right then.  
Riley was caught off guard but relaxed into the touch, running her hand soothingly up and down her sister’s back.

They stayed like that for about a minute. As much comfort as Emily was getting from the hug, she knew they needed to break it off in case someone else walked in and caught Emily acting _nice_ , god forbid. 

“What was that about with Hunter?” Riley’s tone was just as soft as the hug was. She knew her sister was doing her best to console her, and even if she wouldn’t say it out loud, Emily really appreciated it. 

“He… he likes Amanda, I guess.” Emily admitted, “He’s liked her for a while apparently: even while we were together.”

The younger girl’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “Are - are you sure? Is that what Amanda said?”

“She did... I don’t know what to think, Ri…” Her voice trailed off, forcing herself to not get choked up again.

“Amanda seemed really surprised that Hunter did that, and I don’t think her reaction was fake…” Riley threw in her two cents from having been next to the girl.  
“I’m sorry, Emily.”

Riley laced her hand with her sister’s, who gratefully accepted.  
“I’ll be okay,” the older girl reassured, brushing her finger over Riley’s palm, “I just can’t let this whole thing distract me from our real goal tonight.”

“Do you have any new information? Is there anything I can do to help?” 

Emily jumped into her explanation, eager to share her findings with her sister now that it was safe to do so. “She’s been really attached to her cubby all day, and she only stopped going there once Miss Kate told her to get off of her phone.”

“There must be something on there that could incriminate her.” Riley guessed. “Do you know her password?”

Emily shook her head. “No, and that’s the problem. If I try and guess what it is, it could disable the phone completely. Or worse, she could catch me messing with it.”

“But I think there might be something in her journal,” Emily presented her second lead, “I’ve only seen her with it a few times, and she always hides it from me right away. I’m guessing it’s some sort of diary or something?”

“If you’re right about that, there’ll definitely be information about Elite inside. We can confront her with it and force her to explain herself in front of the team.”

“Exactly.” Emily smiled, taking a second to be proud at how smart her sister was. Riley was intentionally out of the knowledge-loop when it came to Amanda, but she still paid attention to the small details and was able to piece things together in seconds.

“All we have to do is wait-”

Emily was interrupted by the sound of the door creaking open,causing her to pull her hand away from Riley’s as if she’d been burned. 

Luckily, it wasn’t Amanda who’d walked in. It was only Chloe, and she quite awkwardly went over to her own bag of clothes without addressing either of them. 

“-Wait for you to bother to check the front pocket before wasting my time.”  
Emily spat the words, grabbing their shared duffle bag and shoving it in Riley’s arms.

Riley got the hint, going into the changing stall without looking back.  
Chloe fumbled with her own bag from the other side of the room before going into the second stall to put on her own pyjamas, intentionally hiding her face from Emily.

Emily felt bad for putting Chloe in such an awkward position. This whole thing must be pretty hard on her, since she was the victim of most of Emily’s bullying last dance season… she wondered if this was bringing back bad memories. 

_I’ll add her to the list of people to bring out for breakfast._

Riley emerged, no longer in her dance clothes but was instead wearing an oversized white hoodie with light blue pyjama pants.  
She gave Emily the bag, mouthing a quick _“I’ve got your back”_ before she left.

Emily knew that Riley did.  
She knew she could count on her sister.

It was as good of a time as any to get out of her uncomfortable leotard, so Emily got changed as well. Needless to say, she preferred her silk red pyjamas to the scratchy black sequins on her dance skirt.

By the time she finished Chloe had already left, so she followed both of the girls back to Studio A. She was welcomed to the sight of the boys trying to roll the TV stand into the rehearsal space.

If Kate’s intense glare from the office was any indication, they weren’t doing a very good job.  
They somehow got it in without breaking anything and set it up at the front of the room, the snack table having been moved to the side to make space. 

_Is this why everyone’s getting changed? We’re watching a movie?_

West was in his ridiculous bathrobe because of course he was, and all the other boys had put on some (less-ridiculous) form of comfortable clothes as well. Just by scanning the room, everyone looked to be in their pyjamas except for Giselle, Thalia….

And Amanda. 

The two former girls headed over to where Amanda was still sitting, scribbling in her notebook. When she realized they were approaching, she tucked it under her arms. 

They had a short conversation amongst each other before Amanda stood up to join them, walking out of the practice space.

With the book still in her hands.

_Great._

At least she knew she wouldn’t be able to destroy it with Thalia and Giselle watching. The worst she could do was stick it in her bag.  
She’d just have to wait a little longer to get her hands on it. 

Pretending to sulk, Emily found a spot on the floor in front of the TV. She tried to stay in the back of the crowd, thinking it would be easier to sneak around to wherever Amanda’s book ended up.  
Besides, she was supposed to hate everyone right now. It made sense for her to be as far away from them as possible.

Her heart did pang a bit though, watching her teammates squabbling about picking a movie in front of her. They were all laughing, teasing each other, genuinely enjoying each other’s company…

Emily missed them. 

It seemed like they were leaning towards a musical at first, but Riley was dead-set against watching it. With the help of James, she was able to sway everyone to The Breakfast Club instead.

Emily could only hope that Amanda liked coming-of-age-drama movies enough for it to be distracting and allow Emily to steal her journal.

A few of them messed around with the DVD player, Eldon mashing the remote like he had no idea what he was doing until West took it from his hands and finally got the title screen to show up.

James and Riley were sitting directly in front of Emily, her sister resting her head on her (almost?) boyfriend’s shoulder.

She was happy for Riley, but a part of her ached at the reminder that her own relationship was such a failure.

_Don’t think about Hunter._  
_He isn’t worth it._

Before she was able to dwell too much, Giselle, Thalia, and Amanda walked back into the room together. 

For a second, Emily did a double take.  
Maybe it was because she was used to seeing Amanda wearing the same god-forsaken bodysuit every single day, maybe it was the now dim lighting of the room…

But she looked much different than she usually did.  
Her clothing consisted of a black tank top that didn’t quite reach her purple plaid pyjama pants. Her staple high ponytail was also gone, her brown hair now gathered into a single braid that flowed down her back. 

What stuck out the most to Emily were the stark bags under her eyes that made it look like she hadn’t slept for days. She must’ve been wearing makeup earlier to cover them: Emily hadn’t noticed before.

It was a reminder that, for as much as a front Amanda put forward at all times, she wasn’t always this immaculate dance captain with everything figured out.  
That she was a normal teenager, who did things like write in diaries and occasionally got tired.

_Funny the day I see Amanda as less of a robot is the same day I catch my boyfriend flirting with her._

Emily breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed the journal still between the Elite member’s hands as she shuffled to find a place to sit with her friends.

They huddled together just as West pressed play on the movie.

It was a waiting game from here.

Emily’s eyes were fixed on Amanda, waiting for her to put down the stupid book to give her a chance to lunge for it.  
About 20 minutes into the movie, she finally set it down and pushed away from her until it was pressed up against the wall. 

Now, all Emily needed was an opening.

It had to be the exact right time. Everyone needed to be distracted: there was no room for failure.

Emily was hyper-alert to everyone’s movements. She’d prepare to go for the book, only for Hunter to get up and grab some snacks or for Chloe to let out a yawn and startle Emily into not moving. 

She had no idea how much time had passed, but everyone was deeply engrossed in whatever was going on in the movie (Emily had no idea, she’d stopped paying attention to that a long time ago) and it gave her her chance. 

She inched her way forward, trying to keep as much distance as possible between herself and the trio of girls while also getting close enough to the book to grab it. Emily thought her heart was going to explode, but eventually it was within her reach. 

Extending her arm, she wrapped her fingers around the spine and pulled it to her chest

_Yes!_

“What are you doing, Emily?”

Emily’s heart dropped into her stomach at the sound of the voice.  
Brown eyes snapped back at her, glaring daggers that threatened to rip Emily apart.

The brown eyes were Thalia’s.  
Emily was glad: if they’d belonged to Amanda, she would’ve _actually_ been ripped apart. 

This didn’t make the situation any less tricky to get out of, though.

“Oh, was this Amanda’s? I thought someone misplaced it…”

Emily had to hope that her lie was passable. 

Unfortunately, Giselle had been alerted to what was going on and did not want to let her off easily. “Don’t play dumb Emily: we saw you with Amanda when she was writing in it earlier. You know who it belongs to.” 

Giselle spoke in a quiet tone: even quieter than Thalia’s, which was a little strange since they both sounded so angry. Emily expected them to be yelling at her the same way they did whenever she was late to rehearsal. 

Mentally cursing herself, she prepared herself to try and have to explain to Amanda why she was holding her notebook after she’d _just_ finished telling her not to worry about it. This was going to blow any shot of exposing Amanda out of the water if she didn’t act carefully.

Forcing herself to remain calm even as she was internally freaking out, she gained the confidence to face Amanda.

Only to find that she was sound asleep.

No ice cold stares, no intimidating expressions. Her face was uncannily peaceful, her chest gently rising up and down as she slept.  
This surprised Emily since it was still pretty early. Some of her other teammates were relaxing, sure, but it was still too soon for anyone to actually go to bed.  
Maybe the bags under her eyes were more of a tell than Emily thought. 

It doubly surprised her to see her head gently rested in Giselle’s lap, nestled up well enough to be sleeping comfortably. Amanda wasn’t really the physically affectionate type, not at the studio anyways. Although the closest she ever got was in her interactions with Thalia and Giselle so Emily supposed it made sense in that regard.

Maybe Emily would’ve found it kind of sweet if she wasn’t operating with the knowledge that she was deceiving them. That her “friendship” with Giselle and Thalia was nothing more than a ploy.  
How manipulative could she get?

Emily shook her head to clear her thoughts. She needed to get back on track.  
_Maybe I can save this._

She grasped at straws, trying to buy herself some time to come up with an excuse.  
“Do you know what it is, then?” Emily pretended to be curious, her grip on the object tightening out of fear that they would snatch it away. “Is it a sketchbook? Or a diary, maybe?”

“No, we don’t know what it is.” Thalia spoke pointedly, “But we know it’s not yours. Put it back.”

A lightbulb went off in Emily’s head.  
She knew how she was going to play this, but it had a chance of horribly backfiring.  
Still, it was her only shot. 

Emily circled around in front of them, hoping that she also got the attention of some of the other A-Troupe members while doing this.

“But don’t you want to know what it says?” Emily dragged her words out, speaking loud enough to be heard but not so loud that she risked waking Amanda.

Riley and James were the first to look over. Emily could practically see the sheer terror pass through her sister’s eyes at the situation she’d gotten herself into.  
The rest of the boys also got curious and averted their eyes from the TV screen to see what was going on.

“We need something to liven this sleepover up, since Riley’s boring movie isn’t really cutting it.”

_Finally, an insult I can say without feeling guilty. Sorry Riley: you have bad taste in movies._

“It’ll just be harmless fun! What’s the worst that could happen? Amanda gets upset that we read the entry where she talks about her crush on James? Don’t be such killjoys.”

Thalia was less than impressed at Emily’s showmanship. “It’s an invasion of her privacy.”

“Yeah, I don’t know…” Eldon awkwardly scratched his head.

Emily swallowed hard. She was losing them, and time marched on, giving Amanda more opportunities to wake up and realize what was happening…

“I think it’s a good idea.”

Riley’s meek voice pierced through the tension building in the room. 

“I think we’ve all noticed how guarded Amanda is… maybe this will get her to talk about herself a bit more?” Riley offered an explanation, “Also, Emily has been really close to her lately. She’ll probably know it’s just a joke if she’s the one doing it.”

Her heartbeat was ringing in her eardrums at this point, hoping that Riley’s interjection would be enough to sway her teammates.

“Eh, why not?”

It was good that they got someone else to agree with them, but Emily wasn’t happy that it was Hunter of all people. She could go the rest of the week without hearing his stupid voice.

Hunter nodded towards the book, “Maybe we can figure out how she really feels about me.”

All her life, Emily has been referred to as hot-headed.  
But apparently everyone was wrong about that because she had the patience to not club Hunter in the head with the book she was holding right then and there.

Anger bubbled up in her chest, but Giselle interrupting helped cool it down.  
“I don’t know guys... “ She glanced down at the girl sleeping in her lap, “It seems like a mean thing to do to her, to break her trust like that…”

_She’s the one who’s breaking OUR trust. You reap what you sow, Amanda._

James shrugged. “It’s just a diary: it’ll probably just have a few embarrassing secrets in it. Some won’t even be that embarrassing, because everyone has had a crush on me at some point.”

This earned him a smack in the shoulder from Riley, a smile tugging at her lips. 

Most of her teammates had slowly formed a semi-circle around where Emily was sitting. Even Chloe, who’d been silent up until this point, let curiosity get the best of her and scuffled forward. 

Thalia bit her lip. “It’s wrong for you to be doing this, but if you’re not going to listen to us then at least stop if you find something too personal.”

Emily had to bite down on her cheek to keep herself from smiling.  
This was it.

All she needed was one entry that talked about Elite, one singular detail that pointed to her still being with them… and for Amanda to not wake up before she could find it. 

Without wasting anymore time, she flipped her enemy’s journal open.  
The front page had quite a few loose papers stuffed underneath it, all of which fell out and landed right in front of Eldon’s feet. 

Emily perked up at the sight of a sticky note that said _passwords_ on it. She hoped everyone was too distracted by the papers that flew onto the floor to notice her tucking it into her sleeve.

Eldon held out the loose pages so that everyone could examine them.  
“They’re very colourful.” West commented.

That was the first thing Emily had noticed, too. The page was facing upside-down for her, so the only things she could make out was a lined spreadsheet that looked somewhat like a calendar. Most of the boxes had been highlighted in different colours, but not in any pattern that Emily could make out. 

“It’s… it’s an Elite schedule…”

Everyone froze at Eldon’s words. He pointed to the top of the page where _Elite Dance Academy_ was spelt out in unmistakable print. 

“What?!” Giselle raised her voice, but quickly lowered it again to avoid waking Amanda. “Are you guys sure?!”

Eldon shuffled through more of the papers in his hands. They were all duplicates of the same page, the only difference being the amount of days in the month and the colours Amanda had chosen to highlight them with. 

Thalia was stunned.  
“Let me see.” She demanded.

Emily didn’t blame her: she and Giselle were the closest ones to Amanda, it would probably be harder for them to come to terms with the fact that she was still at Elite. 

The team passed the pages along until they reached Thalia. They all seemed pretty shaken up at the implications of them, but Emily was overjoyed.

_She’s finally getting exposed._

Thalia analyzed the pages with more concentration than Emily had ever seen in her entire life. Giselle peered over her friend’s shoulder to get a look as well. She was careful not to move too much, conscious of the sleeping girl still in her lap.

“These are Elite schedules…” Thalia confirmed, “...but they’re all old. It’s Saturday, but on here it says it’s Tuesday today which doesn’t make sense.” She shuffled through the papers to continue pointing out inaccuracies, “January 3rd was my dad’s birthday, but it was on a Friday, not a Monday.”

Emily’s heart sank. Her smoking gun had been completely discredited.

“I mean it’s not like any of us really thought Amanda was still at Elite from these papers,” West interjected, laughing slightly at the idea. “She has the solo and the small group, and she’s the dance captain. She probably just kept them in there and never took them out.”

Oh, how wrong West was.

“Let’s get to the real drama!’ Hunter said, motioning at Emily to look inside the rest of the journal. 

If those Elite schedules weren’t enough to prove anything, she needed a more substantial piece of evidence.  
She flipped it open to a random page, desperate to find anything.

“Five forty five AM, forty minutes of cardio. Two-hundred C-O.” 

The rest of the team looked at her like she was reading the page in a foreign language. She may as well have been for how much sense it made.

Still, Emily kept reading. “Six thirty AM. Protein bar, twenty blueberries. Three hundred and thirty plus fifteen equals three hundred and forty-five C-I.”

“Is this some sort of diet journal?” Chloe interrupted. 

Emily blinked.  
It dawned on her that this wasn’t a diary at all, made even more clear when she flipped through more of the pages and all she saw were lists of workouts and foods, followed by random math equations.

_No._  
_There has to be something here._

Emily frantically flipped through the pages, looking for _anything_ at this point.

She landed on today’s date, the page that Amanda had been working on earlier.  
The only thing that was different from this one was the sheer amount of faint pencil marks on it, as if she’d written something and erased it over and over again.  
It meticulously detailed the exact minute of everyday, the exact amount of exercise she’d done, the exact amount of food she ate. 

For once, Emily took a step back from the whole Elite thing and looked at the bigger picture. 

_She… writes this stuff down, everyday?_  
_This seems very rigid and hard to keep up…_

But there was entry upon entry upon entry, as if she’d been doing it for years.

Emily joked about Amanda being a robot. But she wasn’t, and this diet book treated her as if she was just that.  
A machine with set numbers to hit that she wasn’t allowed to deviate from. 

Emily was worried. And she wasn’t the only one.  
Her team stared at the pages with the same mix of dumbfounded pity as she did. 

“I- I didn’t think…” Emily stuttered, pursing her lips together as she shut the cover.

_This isn’t what I wanted to find._

Chloe looked the most shaken up out of everyone, her eyes trailing between the book and the sleeping girl in question. “I can’t believe none of us noticed… this can’t be good for her health.”

“Did you guys know about this?” 

James addressed his question to Giselle and Thalia, who hadn’t seen the journal itself but had managed to piece together what it was from Emily’s description and the team’s reaction.

Giselle frowned, not tearing her eyes away from where Amanda was positioned in her lap. “She never told me. Maybe this is why she was so tired today? She’s been keeping this up for so long?” 

“She didn’t say anything about it to me either.” Thalia stated.  
She looked Emily up and down as she added, “I don’t think she wanted anyone to find out.”

Emily figured she deserved that jab.  
Because, man, did she feel invasive right now.

_She’s the dance captain of two studios, going to school, all the while staying on this intense diet regime?_  
_No wonder she fell asleep so fast today._  
_And to think, she would’ve had practice at Elite too after rehearsal ended here…_

“No big deal, we’ll just put it back and forget we ever saw it.” Hunter said as if it was the obvious solution to this mess.

“ _No_ ,” Thalia immediately shot down that bright idea, “It’s bad enough that we snooped at all, and the only thing worse than that would be to hide that we know her secret. We have to talk to her about it.”

An uncomfortable silence set over the room. Thalia reached forward to take the diary from Emily, who let it go without a fight.

A part of Emily hoped that Amanda wouldn’t wake up for the rest of the night. That everyone would go to sleep and forget about Emily having stolen the book at all.  
But a part of her wanted to talk to Amanda about what they’d found. Surely, she knows that kind of micromanagement is unhealthy?

No matter what the outcome was, she knew her alliance with Amanda was going to take a huge hit, if not crumble completely.

Unfortunately, Emily didn’t have very much time to prepare herself.

“...Guys?...” Giselle called out to her team.

Everyone directed their attention to where she was sitting, Amanda still resting her head against the redhead’s crossed legs.  
Amanda was jostling around, almost as if she was flinching in her sleep. Her previous calm expression was replaced with a pained one.

“Is she awake?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t think so…”

The Elite member continued to squirm, looking anything but comfortable.  
“Mgh, no-”

The words tumbled from her lips, causing everyone to glance at each other in alarm.

_Is she having a nightmare?!?_

“I’m going to wake her up.” Giselle said with finality, not wanting this to go on any longer.

She gently reached down to tap her friend on the shoulder. “Amanda, hey...”

Letting out a loud gasp, Amanda shot up from Giselle’s lap. She struggled to catch her breath, wrapping her arms around her chest as her eyes darted around the room in panicked confusion. 

“It’s alright,” Thalia beckoned in a calming tone, “We’re at the studio.”

She didn’t seem convinced right away. It was as if her mind was elsewhere.  
Eventually, she realized where she was and her breathing started evening out. 

“...Nightmare?” Chloe posed softly. 

Amanda violently shook her head. “No. It doesn’t matter.”

It was strange to hear Amanda snap so openly like that: usually she only used that tone with Emily, and only when she was sure they were alone.

Nobody quite knew how to respond to any of this. Amanda started reaching for something behind her, her motions intensifying when she couldn’t find what she was looking for right away.

“Are you… looking for this?” Hesitantly, Thalia handed her the journal back.

Amanda was quick to grab it. Her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.  
“Why did you have this… why is everyone staring at me?”

Her expression hardened, completely erasing of any sign of distress.  
Her face became an emotionless brick wall.

Again, nobody really knew what to say but ultimately Riley was the one to deliver the news.  
“We read it… we’re sorry, Amanda.”

Everyone braced themselves for Amanda’s response, the air thick with guilt.  
Amanda responded with a dark chuckle, shaking her head. It was scary, if Emily was being honest: Emily was more scared of her in this moment than she’d ever been before. 

“I guess I have to explain, then.”

She ran her hand over the cover of the book, fixing her eyes to the floor as she continued.  
“It’s called ‘Health Management’. It’s mandatory for everyone on the Elite competition team, which meant I had to start once I joined.”

Emily’s heart jumped, wondering if Amanda had just accidentally exposed herself.

But she continued. “I know things are different at The Next Step, but I’ve been doing it for so long now… I don’t know if I can stop.”

She lowered her head to hide her face from the team’s view.

West scratched the back of his neck. “That doesn’t seem like a fair thing for Elite to force onto it’s dancers.” 

“It could be worse,” Amanda mumbled. “At least I know I’m staying in shape.”

“But that much control over a diet… it doesn’t seem healthy, Amanda…” Riley sputtered.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Just like the phone, just like the nightmare, just like Hunter…  
She didn’t want to talk about it.

Amanda wasn’t one for communication, or for even showing much emotion for that matter. The only thing anyone could base their opinion of Amanda on was her actions.

Maybe that was the problem.  
Nobody was paying attention to her actions.

Emily was the only one who truly had any idea what was going on with Amanda, and she prided herself on being able to read her well.  
But there was so much she failed to pick up on.

She noticed something was going on today, but she failed to realize how tired the girl was. She noticed the way she was hesitantly picking at her food, but failed to realize why.

Emily couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault for not seeing what was right in front of her.  
And now?

It had cost her her whole cover.

Amanda stood up, storming away from the group with her book solidly kept between her hands. Before she left the dance floor completely, she turned back around.

“Why were you looking in my book anyways?”

Emily swallowed hard. “Amanda, I can explain-”

“It was my idea.”

Riley spoke over her sister, standing up to address the Elite member head-on.  
“It was just supposed to be a joke… I thought that maybe, we’d learn a bit more about you… It was stupid. I’m sorry.”

Emily shrinked back, hoping she was in the clear from Amanda’s wrath.

“No-” Eldon whipped his head around to face Emily, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “It was Emily who grabbed it in the first place. You’re not the only one responsible for this, Riley.”

“You’re probably just saying that to cover for her, aren’t you?” Giselle added, “That’s why this lock-in even happened in the first place: you wanted to get closer to her. But she’s done nothing but mope and yell at you all day, and now she’s trying to stick you with the blame.”

Giselle looked at Emily with complete disgust. “I get she’s your sister, but defending her isn’t worth it.”

They saw Emily as an awful teammate. A selfish monster. How would she ever be able to show them the truth about Amanda now?!

_They don’t understand how much they’re costing themselves right now._

Emily clenched her jaw to keep her emotions at bay. As much as she wanted to cry at how easily her team had thrown her to the wolves, at how much of a failure this whole operation was, there was still a part of her fighting to salvage this.

Even if it was pointless.

Amanda’s eyes cracked.  
“Just leave me alone.”

Nobody dared follow after her as she went off to her cubby, disappearing from the team’s line of sight. 

Emily was forced to sit as the people she considered her second family gaped, their enraged eyes boring into her.  
“Why did you even come today, Emily?” Thalia spat. 

_I wish I hadn’t._

Emily’s sure she would’ve broken if she couldn’t see her sister from the corner of her vision, staring with those big brown eyes that reassured her that there was someone who understood her actions.

“I don’t know.” Is what fell from Emily’s lips. It came out breathy and stilted.

She felt empty. She couldn’t stand being in this room anymore, the disdain of her peers crushing her.

It’s not like they would believe her if she tried to explain herself, anyways. 

Not bothering to grab any of her stuff, she walked away from the group with the last ounce of dignity she could muster. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of crying, not when they made it clear they wanted her gone. 

As she was walking out of the door to Studio A, she felt something grab her wrist and twist.

Emily let out a low groan in pain as she felt sharp fingernails digging into her skin.  
She didn’t have to guess who it was behind this act.

Amanda was smirking down at Emily, a cruel reminder of the twisted game they were still playing. Even after everything, Amanda still brandished her power as a weapon and it cut Emily to her core.

Couldn’t she already see that she’d won? What did she gain from this?!

The blonde flinched as Amanda leaned in close enough for her to feel her hot breath brushing against her cheek.

_“Nice try.”_

She’d said it quiet enough for nobody else to hear her. Quiet enough to keep her own fake persona going in front of the team, but now, she knew the truth about Emily’s.  
All the time Emily spent making her friends hate her just to gain Amanda’s trust was all for nothing.

And now, Emily was at her mercy.

“Poor Emily,” Amanda’s malicious grin sent shivers down her spine, “Nobody’s gonna want to dance with you at Nationals now that you’ve completely lost it! And to think, if you hadn’t done this, The Next Step would’ve had enough people to compete...”

She accentuated her evil monologue with a mocking pout, as if to poke fun at Emily’s ineptitude.

All of the anger Emily had been pushing down finally broke through and showed no signs of stopping.  
“You set all of this up on purpose! You wanted to make yourself out as the victim, with your stupid fake journal and your stupid fake nightmares! Do you have dirt on Hunter, too?! Did you force him to help you?!”

How could she be such an idiot and fall for her tricks? She actually let herself be _concerned_ for Amanda, but it was all just a part of a huge lie.

Amanda only stood there, smiling the same smug smile that Emily wanted to wipe off of her face.  
Maybe it was a good thing her fake alliance with Amanda no longer existed, because nothing was holding her back from slapping her at this point.

“ANSWER ME!” Emily seethed, gripping onto Amanda’s shoulder and squeezing it with her pent-up rage. “YOU’RE SICK, AMANDA!-”

The only thing that stopped Emily from going further at that point were her teammates rounding the corner to see what the commotion was about.  
Emily was not in the state of mind to handle another confrontation with them.

It dawned on Emily that this was a set up, too. She was trying to make Emily as angry as possible to get her to lash out. Then, Amanda could keep playing her victim card.

A-Troupe would feel _so incredibly sorry_ for the girl who’d just had a nightmare and was being forced to stick to an intense diet-regime by her draconian studio. They’d feel even more sorry that she was being bullied by Emily: why was she even still a part of the team, anyways?

It was a never-ending whirlpool of lies that Emily would never escape from. 

Tears were streaming down her face as she rushed down the hallway towards the exit.  
She didn’t care: she’d come pick Riley up in the morning, but there was no way in hell she was going back and facing the mess that’d be waiting for her in Studio A.

Her breath hitched as she came upon the front door, only to find Kate fiddling with the lock and tucking a key into her pocket.  
Emily’s shock prevented her from hiding her teary face as Kate turned around and noticed her standing there.

“Emily?” The adult’s concerned tone was a stab to Emily’s heart.  
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?”

Emily wanted nothing more than to let herself be comforted by Kate. For someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay, that she wasn’t the evil person that everyone saw her as. But if Amanda had anything to do with it, Kate would learn all about Emily’s deeds in due time and be just as upset with her as everyone else.

She’d probably kick her off of A-Troupe, too. 

Not bothering to wipe her tears at this point, Emily forced her voice not to waver. “I’m leaving.”

She tried to dodge around the studio head, but Kate didn’t move from her position in front of the door.  
“I’ve locked us in: I’m responsible for your safety, so I can’t let anyone leave at this point.”

The teen shook her head in disbelief. “Miss Kate, _please-_ ”  
Her voice broke as she managed to reach behind Kate and grab the door handle, pulling it with all of her might. Needless to say, it didn’t budge, but Emily just kept on desperately pulling it as tears flowed down her red face.

Kate was at a loss. “Emily, what’s going on…?”

“...Emily...”

A new voice had appeared, and it was unmistakably her sister’s which got Emily to stop her futile attempt at prying the door open and turn around.

“I can explain, Miss Kate…” Riley stuttered, her eyes trailing between her sister and the adult. “Let me just calm her down first.”

The studio head didn’t seem happy being asked to leave, but she understood the seriousness of the situation.  
“Alright. Come talk to me once you’re finished.”

Kate cast one last sympathetic look towards Emily before her heels started clicking down the hall, leaving the two sisters alone.

Riley slipped her hoodie sleeve over her hand, bringing it up to her sister’s face and wiping her tears as she sobbed.  
“Hey, hey…” Riley soothed, “It’s okay. I’m here.”

“I failed, Riley!” Emily yelled, no longer afraid of Kate hearing her tirade. “She manipulated me right into her trap, and everyone else sees her as even more of a martyr!”

She let out a pained laugh, and it scared Riley enough for her to have to take a step back. “She really is twisted enough to fake a nightmare to get people to empathize with her. ‘Health Management’? Are you serious? That was never a thing while I was at Elite, she’s such a liar. Leave it to her crooked brain to spend hours forging pages and pages of a pretend journal. And Hunter-”

Her voice finally failed her, a choke putting an end to her angry rant. 

She caught her breath as Riley gently intertwined their hands together. “You’re allowed to be angry: Amanda put you in a really tough position and she isn’t being honest with us.”

Knowing her sister sided with her managed to reassure Emily somewhat.

“... but I don’t think she’s lying about everything.”

“What?!” Emily yelled, jerking her hand back. “How could you say that?!”

“I don’t want to make you more upset,” Riley backtracked, “and I’m not saying your feelings aren’t justified. But logically, with everything you’ve been telling me about Amanda and everything I’ve picked up on, it feels like there’s some missing part of the puzzle that we can’t see yet. The conversation you two had before getting on the bus, how she was acting during the truth or dare game… something’s not adding up.”

Riley looked at her sister with pleading eyes. “You don’t have to think about it right now, but maybe sleep on it, okay?”

Emily scoffed.  
The only thing she would be sleeping on was _the cold ass studio floor_ since she wasn’t allowed to leave. 

“I don’t want you involving yourself anymore. I’m going to take over from here.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” The older girl quirked an eyebrow, “We already lost. Everyone hates me, and Miss Kate is going to kick me out of A-Troupe once Amanda tells her what happened…”

“Amanda doesn’t want to tell Miss Kate or Phoebe what happened.”

Emily paused. “What?”

_That’s basically her one free ticket to getting me kicked out, and she wants to pass up the opportunity? Was that not her goal this whole time?_

“See, that’s what I mean about there being a missing link here.”

Emily was still skeptical to believe this. It was probably just another layer to Amanda’s endless schemes, just her waiting for the moment when it would hurt the team the most before shooting her shot. 

“You were talking about her phone earlier, right?” Riley divulged her plan, “I saw her take it from her cubby, and she’s probably not going to part with it for the rest of the night if she’s been glued to it like you said. So, I’m going to wait until she falls asleep and then I’ll try to see what she’s hiding.”

Suddenly, Emily remembered the one scrap of information from Amanda’s journal that wasn’t a complete waste. She jostled her sleeve until a yellow sticky note fell out.

Picking it up and handing it to her sister, she explained, “This was in her book. It should get you into her phone.”

Riley clutched it in her palm. She gave a determined nod. “Okay. I can do this.”

Emily wanted to be encouraging, but she couldn’t muster it within herself to help her sister on that front. She wanted to believe that this whole thing could be fixed, but it just felt like Emily was digging herself into a deeper and deeper whole.

And Amanda was pushing dirt inside to bury her.

“I’ll wake you up once I find anything substantial. Please, try and get some rest. You’ve been through enough today.”

The younger girl pulled her sister into a hug, but Emily couldn’t relax into this one the same way she did before. Her body was stiff and refused to untense.

They walked back up the hall together, Riley grabbing her sister’s hand and only letting go once there was a threat of people catching them together. Luckily for them, the noise coming from the music room signalled that everyone was in there. Phoebe was the only person in the hallway, and she was setting up a chair right outside of the boys’ sleeping quarters.

_Probably for her and Miss Kate to keep an eye on us during the night. They’re responsible for our safety, after all...._

“Goodnight. I love you.”

Even with all of the crying, Riley did manage to get a ghost of a smile out of her sister with those words.

Emily tucked some loose strands of Riley’s dark locks out of her face. “I love you too.”

They parted ways, Emily returning to Studio A and finding it completely empty. She went over to her isolated sleeping bag and nestled herself inside as deep as she possibly could to hide from the world. 

She couldn’t stomach the thought of facing Amanda again tonight, or anyone else in A-Troupe for that matter. She tossed and turned occasionally due to the rage she felt for the Elite member ruining her life. 

_Amanda’s an awful person._  
_She deserves to rot for everything she’s done to me and my team._

Emily’s stomach dropped when she heard heels clicking their way into the rehearsal space. She buried her face deeper into her pillow as the steps got closer and closer. 

“I don’t know if you’re asleep-”

Kate sounded crestfallen.  
_Is she really that concerned for me?_

Emily didn’t give her any hints, but Kate continued.  
“Riley didn’t say much: only that a joke had gone too far. The team seems pretty upset, though…”

As if Emily hadn’t suffered from enough heart attacks today, Kate decided she needed to get a last one in by crouching down and giving the teen’s arm a soft brush.  
“I know this isn’t you, Emily. Whenever you’re ready to talk, I’m here for you.”

Once she was sure Kate was gone, Emily curled up tighter in her sleeping bag. The day had been emotionally draining, and this last batch of tears also brought drowsiness as she finally drifted off to sleep. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Emily, wake up!”

The blonde was awoken from her sleep by sharp whispers pouring into her ear and a firm hand shaking her awake. 

“Hmm?”

She lifted her head to get a better sense of where she was.  
Studio A was pitch-black, indicating that it was still nighttime. The glow of the safety light bouncing off of the wall-length mirrors was the only reason Emily was able to see anything at all.  
What she could make out in the dim room was a bunch of her teammates, still sound asleep. Riley was the only one awake.

“Em, she’s gone, I-”  
Riley’s whispers were hard to make out because of her laboured breathing, something she only did when she got anxious.

“Riley, breathe with me, okay?” Emily guided a few deep breaths to help calm her sister down enough to tell her what was going on. 

Once she was sufficiently calm, Riley dropped the news.

“Amanda’s gone. She left.”

Emily furrowed her eyebrows. “She left the room? She probably just went to the bathroom: she’ll be back.”

“ _No_ , Em.”

Riley’s firm tone made Emily aware of how serious she thought this was. She gave her sister her undivided attention, allowing her to elaborate.

“I was following the plan, like I told you earlier. Once we all got tired, I came back in here with the girls to go to bed. I was going to take Amanda’s phone once she fell asleep, but she never _did_ fall asleep, so I never had the chance. I thought it would take her a little bit longer because of her nap earlier, but it was almost like she was forcing herself to stay awake…”

She awkwardly played with her hands to comfort herself through the story. “At that point, I was so tired that I started dozing off. Except, before I could, her phone started buzzing and she answered it. I couldn’t hear the other side of the line, but it was loud. Whoever she was talking to was yelling. Amanda asked what was going on, and then said: ‘If you let them go, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes’.” 

Even though she was still half-asleep, Emily followed along as best she could. “And then she left? But how? The door is locked, Kate and Phoebe would’ve never let her leave in the middle of the night…”

“They didn’t let her go. I watched her sneak into the office and I heard the sound of jingling keys as she walked out.”

_Oh._

Rubbing some of the sleep out of her eyes (and some of the dried tears off of her cheeks), she looked at the office in question. She couldn’t see much, but she could make out the outline of a figure with their head face-planted into the desk.

“If you let them go, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes?” Emily repeated her sister’s words in disbelief. “Surely she can’t mean… rehearsal at Elite?”

“It’s almost two in the morning, so I don’t know why Elite would still be practicing… but I can’t think of anywhere else that she’d go.”

Emily pondered that for a second, and came to the conclusion that her sister was right. If it was a family emergency, she could’ve gotten them to call Kate or Pheobe so that she could leave. But Amanda had stolen the keys to let herself out of the building, which didn’t leave many other scenarios. 

Her eyes widened in realization.

“Riley, this is it! We can finally expose her!”

“Wait, Em-”

But she was too distracted to listen to her sister. With newfound adrenaline, Emily kicked her sleeping bag off and stood up. “I’ll go get Miss Kate, tell her what’s going on-”

_“Emily!”_

Riley stood up too, her fists now clenched. “You’re missing my point here. Something is seriously wrong! She was being yelled at over the phone, she sounded scared almost-”

“What is going on in here?”

Kate walked into the rehearsal space with both hands on her hips. Riley’s loud voice had probably gotten her attention, and from the sounds of the rustling sleeping bags at the other side of the room, it had also gotten the attention of some of their sleeping teammates.

Riley chewed on her lip. “... Amanda left. She stole the keys to the front door and walked out.”

The adult’s jaw dropped. Emily heard a gasp come from the other side of the room, but she couldn’t make out who it’d come from in the darkness.

“How would she manage that?! Phoebe is supposed to be…”

Her sentence trailed off, shifting her attention from the two girls over to her office. They were compelled to follow her when she went to check out the situation inside.  
Sure enough, getting closer exposed the fact that Phoebe had fallen asleep on Kate’s desk. Faint waterfall noises played in the background until Kate smacked the noise machine sitting on the table.

“PHOEBE!”

Phoebe was startled out of her sleep to the point of completely falling out of her chair onto the hard floor.

“...Kate?” She asked, rubbing the sting out of her back from how’d she landed. “What’s the big idea-”

“How could you fall asleep?! We’re in charge of these kids, and you let one of them run away!”

Her mouth gaped open as she was being reprimanded by her younger sister.  
“I-I’m sorry, I tried to turn the machine on to keep me awake, but I guess it didn’t work…”

“What happens if she hurts herself?! She could be anywhere, and!-”

Riley interrupted the argument. “Actually, Miss Kate… we know where she went.”

All eyes were on Riley after that revelation, those of the two adults and of the rest of the girls that were now awake to witness the chaos. Chloe was clutching her pillow to her chest, and Giselle and Thalia had interlocked their arms looking very concerned for their missing friend.

“She went to Elite.” Emily stated.

Everyone stared at her, dumbfounded. Even Kate and Phoebe.

“Emily..” Kate sucked in a breath, “That’s a very serious accusation you’re making. Why would Amanda have possibly gone there?”

“Yeah, Emily.” Giselle glared. “Why would we believe anything you say?”

“She’s not lying.”

Riley wrapped her arms around her sister, showing her full support to her now that the truth about Amanda was finally coming to light. “I know what she’s done tonight looks bad, but she was only trying to protect the team. We’ve been trying to expose Amanda as a member of Elite for a while now.” 

Riley put her chin on her sister’s shoulder, deepening the embrace as the older girl elaborated. “Me trying to read her journal, every single mean thing I said to my sister… it was all a part of our plan to get the truth out.”

Chloe, Giselle and Thalia looked on with utter disbelief. The two latter girls opened their mouths to protest, but shut them when they realized they couldn’t justify anything that’d transpired. There were no alternate explanations as to why Riley and Emily were suddenly acting like close sisters again, or why Amanda was no longer present in the room with them.

“Back up…” Kate tried to make sense of all of this, “What happened, how did she leave?”

Riley went over the entire story again: Amanda’s phone call, watching her sneak into the office and the sound of keys as she left.

When she was finished, Kate cursed herself. “I thought I heard someone in the hallway a while ago. I figured they just wanted to get water or something…”

Without wasting any time, the adult took long strides towards the front door to confirm that Amanda really had left. They got their answer when they found a set of keys sitting on the ground, the front door slightly ajar.

She was gone.

Kate scooped up the keys, as if she was scared someone else was going to snatch them away. She turned to Riley and Emily, giving the two of them skeptical stares.  
“... You’re sure that’s where she ran off to? Elite?”

“I can’t think of anywhere else that makes sense.” Riley stated assuredly.

The studio head’s expression darkened. She went up to her sister, handing her the keys with a severe look.  
“Go wake up the boys and stay with them all. Don’t fall asleep. I’m going to go get Amanda, lock the door behind me when I leave.”

Phoebe gave a small nod. “Okay.”

“Miss Kate, let me come with you.” Emily demanded. “We should check to see if she’s still at her bus stop, and I’m the only one who knows where that is. Plus, I know how to get to Elite and know my way around the building.”

Riley’s eyes shot open. “Em, I don’t think this is a good idea! She could be in serious trouble, and I don’t want you caught up in that!”

Rather than getting Emily to reconsider, though, her words only caused Kate to panic. “What sort of trouble? Is this about the altercation yesterday that nobody would tell me about?”

“It’s personal,” Thalia justified, “Amanda didn’t want you getting mixed up in her private life.”

_Well, it’s happening now, whether she wanted it to or not._

“I’ll be okay, Riley.” Emily tried to comfort her sister by giving her a small smile.

Honestly, Emily still had a hard time believing Riley’s instances that something was wrong. Amanda always seemed plenty in control of every situation she found herself in, and this was no different.

Besides, Emily had danced at Elite. She’d faced Lucien’s strict teaching methods first-hand and witnessed him occasionally raise his voice.

_She’s probably worried for nothing._

“We need to get going.” Kate spoke firmly.

Emily nodded, giving a small wave to her very confused teammates and her terrified sister before following Kate outside.

The teen lead the way, using the streetlights as her guide towards the bus stop she’s been to only a day earlier. She was forced to reflect on how rude she’d been to Amanda for running outside in just her dance clothes when Emily looked just as ridiculous doing it in her pyjamas.

To be fair, it was Amanda who put her in this position in the first place.

Kate wasn’t fairing much better, struggling to walk on the slush-filled sidewalk in her heels.

Squinting, Emily could faintly make out the outline of the bus stop through the light snowfall.  
They had to get a bit closer until it became clear it was empty, not a soul in sight.

“It must’ve already picked her up…” Emily told Kate. 

Admittedly, Emily wasn’t upset by this: she knew it would be much more fulfilling to catch Amanda in the act of betraying them then to just pluck her from a random sidewalk.  
But Kate looked genuinely petrified, so she did feel bad for her sake.

Emily supposed she could understand: even if there was no real threat to Amanda’s safety, Kate was responsible for her, so losing her at all would be scary.

The two started their careful trek back to the studio parking lot. Kate huddled closer to Emily so that the two wouldn’t freeze to death on their way.

After what felt like an eternity, they arrived at Kate’s white SUV and piled inside. Emily rubbed her hands together, letting the hot air pouring from the car’s heater warm her frigid body as Kate pulled out of the parking lot.

“Can you please tell me what’s going on with Amanda now?”

The adult’s eyes were fixed on the road, but her tone was cloaked in fear that told Emily she needed to give Kate a direct answer.

“She joined The Next Step to keep us from going to Nationals,” Emily started from the beginning, “I caught her with Lucien at the mall one day, and I’ve been trying to expose her since. That’s why I’ve been acting so rude lately: to make Amanda think I was on her side and to get her to trust me.”

Kate’s features softened as much as she could given the circumstances.  
“I knew it. I knew there was something else going on. You would never betray the team.”

Emily smiled, shyly twisting a strand of hair around her finger. After so long of feeling like a complete outcast, this was her moment where she could finally let the truth come out.

It felt nice to have someone like Kate, someone she considered like a second mother, always there to support her.

“I couldn’t have done it without Riley. She got me through some of the really rough patches. Especially today... well, yesterday I guess.”

Kate took a left at a traffic light as they came upon the other side of the neighborhood where Elite was located. “And what happened today?”

“Amanda set up all of these ruses to help with her credibility while destroying mine. One was a nightmare she pretended to have, and the other was a fake diet journal that I unknowingly read from…”

Emily left out the Hunter drama, for obvious reasons.

“Riley seems to think there’s something deeper going on, but I don’t know. I’ve had to deal with Amanda’s manipulation for months now: I know what she’s capable of. She’s always so sure of herself, always in control-”

“-But maybe that’s just what she wants you to think?”

Emily narrowed her eyes at Kate’s interjection. “What do you mean?”

“I know I’m completely out of the loop on all of this, which is doubly embarrassing since I’ve gone and made a member of a different studio our dance captain.” Kate gave a sad laugh.

“But from what I’ve gathered,” she continued, “Amanda acts a lot like a certain someone I remember from last season. Someone who hid her insecurities under her cold persona.”

She braked at a stop sign, taking the chance to cast her student a gentle glance. “Sound familiar?”

Emily felt herself melt further into her seat.  
“I… I guess I didn’t think of that…”

A lump formed in her throat, Kate’s suggestion dropping a bomb on all of Emily’s previous assumptions.

_Is that why she didn’t want Miss Kate to know about the journal?_  
_Because it really is the truth?_

Emily didn’t know what to believe anymore.

After flip-flopping all day between feeling sympathy, empathy, and nothing but anger towards her enemy, she’d been stretched thin.

But the truth would come out soon enough.

After a while of tense driving they finally arrived at the backlot of Elite, Kate putting the car in park.

“This is serious, Emily.” Kate suddenly became stern. “I need you to stay by my side at all times, okay?”

Emily nodded. “I understand. Let’s do this, Miss Kate.”

They slipped out of the car, sneaking up to the back door of Elite Dance Academy.  
That’s when they hit their first roadblock.

Emily’s breath got caught in her throat as she noticed a figure standing in front of the door, almost as if they were guarding it. They were facing the door, though, so maybe they weren’t trying to guard anyone from getting in, but guarding someone from getting out…

The dancer blinked at the figure in front of her.  
“... Max?”

This finally got him to turn around.  
The first thing she noticed were Max’s eyes that looked almost as hollow as Amanda’s did earlier before she took her nap.

He was undoubtedly cold, standing out here in the snow, but he gave the impression that he wouldn’t have moved for anything.

It was up to Emily to figure out why.

“Is… Amanda, is she in there?”

Not answering right away, Emily wondered if questioning him was futile. It’s not like he would give away Elite’s little secret, after all.

“I don’t know what to do.”

Hearing Max’s voice surprised Emily, who’d never heard him so much as make a sound during her whole time at Elite. He was clearly distraught, which gave them a hint as to why he was standing outside of the elite building, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a snowstorm.

_Maybe, something is going on...._

“Did you just get out of practice?” 

Kate looked at Emily like what she proposed was absurd, which, yes, it was absurd for a studio head to keep his dancers at rehearsal past midnight. Let alone _two in the freaking morning_.  
But Max slowly nodded his head in confirmation which left the studio head aghast.

“He kept everyone late tonight: he’s been doing it a lot more recently.” Max confessed. “He hasn’t been the same since after Regionals ended. This week especially, he’s been harder on all of us.”

Emily was almost scared to ask her next question, “Harder? Harder… how?”

Max didn’t answer: he only turned back to face the door, acting like some sort of bodyguard.

When it became clear he wasn’t going to answer, Kate butted into the conversation. “So Amanda is in there right now, correct?”

He swiped his hand across his forehead, agitated.  
“It’s the only way he would let anyone leave. She showed up to help us, and I just… let him kick me out. I should’ve fought harder to stay in there with her.”

_If you let them go, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes._

His words checked out with Riley’s account, which only meant the “she” he was talking about was Amanda, “us” was the Elite team…

...and the “he” was undoubtedly Lucien.

“Everyone else is gone,” Max disclosed, “But even if I can’t be in there to help her, I didn’t want her to have to be alone after this is done.”

Emily’s blood ran cold, and not just because of the frigid temperature.  
_After what is done?_

“What’s going on in there?” Kate asked, her voice hoarse from emotion.

Again, Max didn’t respond: he only looked back at the door with conflicted eyes.  
This reaction was less than comforting, especially to the already very-on-edge Kate.

“... You’re going to let us in, though?” Emily posed.

Max didn’t move from his position in front of the door but seemed more alert.

“Because deep down, you know whatever secrets Elite is hiding aren’t worth keeping anymore.” She finished.

_He wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t think something bad was happening…._

_He’s a member of Elite. He’s just as deep in this web as Amanda, and even if I don’t quite know what the web actually holds, I can at least admit at this point that some of it is true._

_Anyways, it’s clear he wants to do something about it, but he can’t._

_We can._

They had a stare down for a good few seconds, Emily able to momentarily forget about the cold weather as her bright blue eyes countered Max’s dark and sullen ones.

He moved out of the way, leaving the door wide open for Emily and Kate to enter.

“Be careful,” were his parting words, “make sure she’s okay.”

Emily took a deep breath. She reached forward, pulling open the door to the dark world of Elite.

Comparing Elite Dance Academy to a villain’s lair wasn’t an embellishment in the slightest.

The already dark space was made even more creepy due to the lack of light coming in from the windows. A tiny bit managed to peek through from the city lights, but they only served to cast foreboding shadows around the space.  
Even though it was snowing outside, it somehow felt colder inside the building than it did outdoors.

It was like a morgue.  
A morgue that Emily had willingly waltzed into.

Goosebumps littered her arms and legs as she crept up the stairs. She probably would’ve given up and ran out of the place screaming if Kate hadn’t comfortingly placed her hand on the small of Emily’s back.

It made her feel protected, having her there with her.

As soon as they got up the staircase, Kate guided her to the side of the room. They ducked behind a grand piano to get a better sense of what was going on.

From their new vantage point, they were able to make out the two people standing on the dance floor. The only source of light in the whole room was a spotlight harshly illuminating the both of them.

Amanda was back in her dance clothes, but looked nowhere near as immaculate as she usually did. Her ponytail was disheveled, and she was deathly pale under the lighting. Her expression was blank, but not in her usual emotionless way.

She just looked... defeated.

Lucien was staring down at her with the most intense glare Emily had ever seen: and that was saying something, since Amanda had spent the better part of the last month glaring at her, not to mention all of the glares she’d received from her teammates that day.

He looked at Amanda as if she was nothing. Less than nothing.

The image would forever be burned into Emily’s mind.

He was slowly pacing around her, as if he was a shark circling its next meal.  
He smirked as he noticed the way the younger girl was uncomfortably squirming under his gaze.

Lucien started wildly gesticulating with a book in his hands. “You’re trying to convince me that you’re doing your job properly, yet you can even keep your health in check?!”

Emily felt the colour drain from her face as she noticed what the book was.  
It was Amanda’s journal.

“It was three pieces of popcorn, Lucien,” Amanda forced through gritted teeth. It was like she was doing everything in her power to hide the fact that she was scared, yet a bit of fear worked its way into her delivery nonetheless. “I thought it would be weird if I ate nothing, people might question my cover-”

_“Bullshit!”_

Lucien chucked the journal at Amanda, narrowly missing hitting her in the leg. It clattered against the floor instead.

Emily had to stop herself from gasping at the violent action. Kate had let a gasp of her own slip, but it was too quiet to be heard by anyone other than Emily who was crouched down right next to her.

“You’re really letting yourself go. Look at you!”

He got closer to his student, who stumbled backwards at the sudden movement. He narrowed his eyes at her for doing this which made her freeze completely, like a deer in headlights.

He wrapped his hands around the girl’s middle and squeezed her midriff. His fingers freely gripped and pinched at her stomach with the only barrier being the girl’s tight black bodysuit.

Emily was completely stunned. Kate was also clearly uncomfortable, her eyes getting glossy at what was transpiring in front of her.

“You’re disgusting,” he spat, giving her a light shove as he moved his hands away. She almost fell over but managed to keep her balance as Lucien continued to berate her.

“This is unacceptable. It’s obvious to anyone that you’ve been slacking: that’s why you didn’t show up for practice today.”

Amanda shook her head, but in a tiny movement as if she was afraid of defying him. “You told me not to come. You told me that I had to protect my cover-“

“You’re THEIR DANCE CAPTAIN, AMANDA!”

His sudden bout of rage shook up the Elite member, who curled in on herself.

“You should’ve talked them out of the lock-in! But you didn’t, because you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re an embarrassment to this team.”

He continued to break her down, even though at this point, Amanda seemed way beyond her breaking point.  
“It’s out of some sick need for attention, isn’t it? What you get here isn’t enough? You need to leach it all out of Kate and her dancers, too?”

_What is he even on about?_

In all of the words Emily had ever used to describe Amanda, attention-seeker was not on the list. If anything, she seemed to have an aversion to anyone knowing anything about her. 

This was the comment that struck Amanda the hardest though, if her reaction was any indication.

“That’s not it, Lucien!” She didn’t sound mad: her voice was small and pleading, a giant departure from her usual sharp tone. “I always try my best for the team. You don’t actually mean what you’re saying right now…”

She faltered on that last part. 

Lucien gave her a condescending laugh like she was some sad pathetic child standing before him. “Prove me wrong, then. I know you don’t have it in you.”

His evil eyes lingered on Amanda for a second before he finally turned his attention to a stereo a few feet away. He fiddled with it, getting a song to start playing as Amanda got into position.

Kate and Emily were both in a trance as she started dancing to the melody. 

Emily wasn’t familiar with this choreography: it was probably one of the numbers Elite was planning to compete at Nationals. It was a contemporary piece that veered into more of an intense and cutting side of the genre. 

Just as she always was watching Amanda dance, Emily was impressed. The way she moved gracefully and executed the moves seamlessly was amazing to witness.

Except, this time was a bit different. 

Her movements were slightly sluggish, a sign that the only sleep she’d gotten was a short nap interrupted by a nightmare. The bags under her eyes were even more prominent than before, and Emily didn’t believe that was possible. 

It didn’t look like it was a person dancing.  
She looked like a reanimated corpse. 

The routine continued, and Emily felt her heart stop when Amanda paused for a second.

_That must’ve been part of the routine…. she never messes up…._

She recovered by launching into a turn section, but the damage was already done.

“AMANDA!”

The music ended abruptly as the studio head marched up to his student in a rage. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

Emily felt her throat close up, tears welling in her eyes out of fear of what was to come.

“I don’t know that section yet!” Amanda cried out, flinching backwards. “I was supposed to learn it today…”

“Now do you understand why I wanted to see you?! God, maybe I should’ve kept the rest of the team to watch your laughable attempt at dancing. We all could’ve gotten a kick out of how much of a disappointment you are.”

“Lucien, _please_.” Amanda whispered lowly. As much as she was trying to hide it, it was impossible to miss the tears running down her ghostly cheeks. “You haven’t been acting like yourself since we lost Regionals. This isn’t you.”

Lucien took another step forward, seizing the younger girl’s wrist.  
It reminded her of when Amanda had done the same thing to her only hours prior.

Sure, when Amanda had done it to Emily, it had hurt.  
But Amanda was her age, and there was no real threat of her seriously harming Emily beyond slight discomfort.  
Lucien was a grown man, an authority figure, her ACTUAL DANCE TEACHER who was supposed to be supporting her.

Amanda was in no state to fight back against him.

“Are you doubting my methods? Elite’s too good for you now, is that it?”

He yanked her wrist forward, causing her to yelp in pain. Amanda could do nothing but stare at her teacher with big, pained eyes that were pleading with him to stop.

Fear looked so foreign on Amanda’s features. The fact that she always tried so hard to control her emotions made seeing her like this hurt a thousand times more.

Lucien’s patience had worn out long ago.  
“ANSWER ME!”

The sound of skin colliding with skin resonated throughout the whole room. Emily shut her eyes just as his palm met the girl’s cheek.  
Just because she didn’t see it happen didn’t mean the sound of Amanda’s screams or of her hitting the floor would haunt her any less.

When she managed to force her eyes back open, she found Kate with a cell phone between her hands. She tapped on the screen three times before pressing the device to her ear.

“Hello, 9-1-1?”

Kate was whispering as quietly as she could into the receiver to give their location to the operator.  
Lucien hadn’t gone idle, however.

“Look what you did, Amanda!” Emily turned her attention back to the pair, her heart aching at the sight of Amanda laying on the floor, clutching the side of her face in her hands. “You’ve got me all worked up!” 

Lucien was aimlessly stomping around the room in a blind fit of anger. Kate continued to speak with the operator but they had some trouble communicating seeing as she was being purposefully quiet.

It seems her caution to keep her voice down didn’t matter in the end, because a loud beeping noise came out of the phone that bounced off of the walls of the studio.

Kate’s eyes snapped up to meet Emily’s, the two of them freezing in fear.

“WHO’S THERE?”

Emily knew that any second now, Lucien would come stomping over and catch them in the act of trespassing.

She couldn’t let that happen.  
Not when help was on their way, help that Amanda desperately needed.

Emily willed herself to clear her mind and to stop shaking.

_You’ve been keeping this cover up for weeks now: this is the final test._

A very high-stakes final test, but she couldn’t think about what could happen to her if she messed up her fake persona a second time.

All she could think about was Amanda.

“Emily-“ Kate snapped in a clipped whisper, “What are you-“

She’d promised Kate to stay with her, and felt guilty betraying that, but Emily was willing to compromise her own safety if it meant helping them get out of there unscathed. 

“Stay on the phone.” Was all she left the studio head with. She let herself savour Kate’s comforting presence for a second longer…

… before pulling herself to her feet and booking it right into no man’s land.

“Hello, Lucien.” Emily tried her best to sound impassive. She forced her back up as straight as it could possibly go and tilted her chin up the smallest amount.

Emily didn’t realize it at the time, but she was channeling Amanda’s stance that made her seem untouchable to any onlooker.  
She could only hope it worked just as well for her.

Luckily, he was searching in the opposite direction so he hadn’t noticed her hiding place. He whipped his head around to face the teen.  
“Emily?!” His gruff voice almost made Emily tense up, but she had to hold firm.

She couldn’t break, not now.  
All she had to do was stall.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she tried to make it seem like she just walked in, “I’m sure Amanda has filled you in on the fact that I’m on her side?”

Emily hated the idea of bringing Amanda back into this mess while she was literally reeling in pain on the floor, but she couldn’t let him think that she was here with any ill-intentions towards him or Elite.

Unfortunately, this got Lucien to turn back towards his student who was now sitting upright. Her eyes were filled with a mix of confusion and pain, the latter emotion showing through more as she swatted away the tears on her cheeks. She winced whenever her hand came in contact with the wound Lucien caused.

“No,” He snarled, “She _hasn’t_ informed me.”

Lucien started reaching out towards the brunette. Emily interjected before he could touch her again.

“-That’s alright, because I’m here to join your studio now.”

The man paused, giving a mocking huff as he entertained the idea. Her words hadn’t deterred him from grabbing Amanda again, giving his reply to Emily as he snaked his slimy arm around the teen’s torso and pulled her into a standing position.

“And why would you do that?”

Emily tried her best to not look at Amanda, knowing she would probably start crying if she did for too long.  
But she could sense the younger girl’s eyes on her, probably confused out of her mind at this point.

_I have to help her._

“Besides the fact that my team deserves to lose everything after turning their back on me… Amanda made it perfectly clear that she was going to succeed in getting enough people kicked out of A-Troupe to keep them from getting to Nationals. So why not just cut out the middle-man early?”

As she monologued, Emily slowly inched herself closer and closer to Amanda. Her heart raced because this meant she was also getting closer to Lucien, but she didn’t stop.

This might partly be because Lucien was acting much less outwardly-hostile than when he thought he was alone with Amanda. He gave off the most condescending air imaginable, but he was probably trying to convince Emily that he wasn’t the devil incarnate so he toned down the aggression somewhat.

Too late. She’d already seen what he’d done to Amanda, and there was no convincing her otherwise.

She was running out of ways to stall and hoped the police were nearby. 

“You probably have a full team already,” Emily kept the conversation moving, “But I’m open to the alternate position. I thought you might at least consider it, seeing as I was on your team before… I won’t get in your way.”

Lucien’s harsh eyes were on her. Judging her.

_Does he suspect something?_

Lucien opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.  
Before he could talk, the loud noise of a door being busted through broke her eardrums.

Emily didn’t have time to recoil at the loud noise.  
In an instant she grabbed Amanda’s arm, tugging her out of Lucien’s grasp and started running forward over to where she knew Kate was still hiding behind the piano.

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”

Amanda stiffened under Emily’s touch, but Emily was functioning on pure adrenaline at this point and kept on pulling her along.  
Kate stood up from her hiding place, opening her arms as they approached.

Her safe arms.

As soon as Emily let go of Amanda, she buckled underneath her own weight. Kate managed to catch her before she fell to the ground.

“I’ve got you Amanda.” 

The cries Amanda had been holding back for so long finally had the chance to show themselves.

No more fake persona.  
No more hiding what was going on beneath the surface.

It was her.

She buried her face into Kate’s shoulder, the adult rubbing soothing circles into the dancer’s back.

After the hell she’d been through, Amanda deserved to feel safe in Kate’s arms.

Engrossed in her thoughts, Emily was finally shaken out of them when Kate beckoned her forward with a wave of her hand.

Emily felt her own body crumple from the stress as she accepted Kate’s comfort. Her heart rate was still abnormally fast, but she could feel it start to settle somewhat as she leaned against the studio head’s shoulder.

“I’ve got you both. It’s going to be okay.”

The adult’s voice reassured them that maybe it would be.

Maybe this nightmare of a day was finally over.

Maybe the nightmare of having to pretend was over.

There were sounds of people moving about the room, of what sounded like jangling metal, and even noises of protest that were all muffled due to Emily’s place on Kate’s shoulder.

For now, she was happy letting the police take care of matters and soaked up Kate’s comfort for as long as possible.

Emily wasn’t sure how long the three were huddled together like that, but a police officer put an end to the moment.

“Please, come with me.”

Emily lifted her head to find a kindly looking officer, his features soft and sympathetic. She prepared herself to stand up but quickly found that Amanda wasn’t ready to leave just yet.

Amanda shook her head wildly where it was pressed into Kate’s shirt, too scared to move.  
Too scared to face Lucien again.

Kate cast a worried glance down at her, asking the officer: “Is he gone?”

For what it was worth, the officer nodded. “We’ve got him in the back of our cruiser. He won’t be coming near any of you anytime soon.”

“We’d just like to ask you a few questions.”

Amanda still seemed weary, but with the help of Kate she managed to stand.  
The adult wrapped an arm around each of the girls as they followed the officers outside of the Elite building.

For once, the cold winter air felt somewhat refreshing on Emily’s hot and sweaty skin. 

Suddenly, she felt something clasp her hand. She looked down to find Amanda’s hand intertwined with her own.

Amanda didn’t have to say anything: Emily understood.

She wouldn’t ignore her actions this time. 

Emily started gently brushing her finger up and down her former enemies’ palm, the same way she would do for her sister. 

They’d had their extreme up and downs, especially in the past twenty-four hour period.

But as traumatic as the events that just transpired were for everyone involved, they also signalled something important:

_The game was over._

No more lies, no more secrets, no more covers.

It was just Amanda and Emily, ready to face the aftermath.  
Ready to face it together.

**Author's Note:**

> they've been through a lot, but now they have each other <3
> 
> If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you guys think in the comments.
> 
> This oneshot was partially inspired by Dancing with Dilemmas on Wattpad by peachmoonglow, you should all definitely go check it out. it's amazing and there's an 100% chance you will cry reading it lol
> 
> I'm also on Twitter @/StillAtElite if you'd like to talk there :)


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